Process of making articles of vegetable shell.



CLEMENT SCHVIINGER, OF MIANILA, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS.

PROCESS OF MAKING ARTICLES 013 VEGETABLE SHELL.

No Drawing.

To all whom it may concern Be 1t known that T, CLEMENT SGHWINGER, a subect of the Emperor of Germany, and

a resident of Manila, in the Philippine.

Islands, have invented a new and useful Tmprovement in Processes forMaking Articles of Vegetable Shell, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of articles out of cocoanutshell, or other hard vegetable shell, especially to buttons and theprocess of manufacturing such buttons. Cocoanut shell is peculiarly welladapted for the manufacture of buttons, since it has a very hard, firm,tough body, not easily broken; but in order to commercially make sucharticles special treatment of the shell is required. The largerpercentage of the buttons are required to be colored by immersing inliquid dye, but in this treatment the time of immersion must beshortened to a. minimum, for if the buttons are left too long in thesolution the fibers or veins of the shell have a tendency to becomeloose and fall out, which would leave the faces of the buttons with uglygrooves and furrows. The polishing of the buttons has also to beeffected in a particular manner. It is to these treatments, and therendering of the manufacture of said buttons in large quantitiesinexpensive that my invention is directed; and I accomplish the ends inmind in the manner herein described.

The raw shells, in the first place, must have the soft tissue and loosefibrous matter removed from their faces by any convenient means. Thenthe shells are cut into blanks or disks of convenient size which are fedto automatic shaping and forming machines, commonlycalled automatics bywhich the buttons are finished as far as their shape and form isconcerned. The buttons are then put in a revolving oven of anyconvenient type, and herein are subjected to a temperature of about 100degrees Fahrenheit for a period of about an hour; this treatment havingfor its purpose to open the pores of the material so as to permit thedye to readily and thoroughly penetrate. The buttons are then taken fromthe oven and thrown into boiling liquid dye (anilin being generallyused) and are allowed to remain in this solution just long enough tobecome thoroughly dyed as desired. This operation is relatively quicklyaccomplished, because of the condition in which the but- Specificationof Letters Patent.

Application filed. July 22, 1913.

Patented (Pet. 27, 1914.

Serial No. 788,608.

tons are previously placed as above mentioned. The buttons are thentaken from the dye and spread out to dry,wl1en they are ready forpolishing. The latter operation is accomplished by placing the buttonsin a tumbling barrel or shakers containing shavings thrown off by thecocoa-nut shell in the process of facing them in the automatics; and tosuch shavings there is added, and intermixed, powdered stearin orstearic compound, or other suitable porefilling and surface-polishingcompound. lln' being tumbled about in such polishing material the minutepores of the shell become filled with the stearin, and the finishedbutton is kept clean and bright. By thistreatment the buttons acquire adull finish.

If a high polish is desired, the buttons have to be polished singly byplacing them in a revolving chuck and polishing by han with a clothdipped in dry, powdered stearin or stearic compound, or other suitablepore filling and surface polishing compound.

The expression dye is to be understood as including any coloring agent.The expression stearic compound refers to some compound of which stearinin some form is included.

I claim:

1. The process of making articles out of vegetable shell which consistsin first producing a blank by removing the husk and soft tissue from theshell, then forming the article out of the blank, then subjectingtheformed article to a temperature of about one hundred degrees Fahrenheit,then immersing the article in a liquid dye, then drying the article, andthen finishing by tumbling the article in a mixture of fibrous materialand a powdered stearic compound.

2. The process of making articles out of cocoanut shell which consistsin first producing a blank by removing the husk and soft tissue from theshell, then forming the article out of the blank, then subjecting theformed article to a temperature of about one hundred degrees Fahrenheit,then immersing the article in a liquid dye, then drying the article, andthen finishing by tumbling the article in a mixture of fibrous materialand powdered stearin.

3. The process of making articles out of cocoanut shell which consistsin first producing a blank by removing the husk andv formed article to atemperature of about one l hundred degrees Fahrenheit, then immersingthe article in a liquid dye, then drying the article, and then finishingby tumbling the article in a mixture of cocoanut shavings and a powderedstearic Compound.

4-. The process of making articles out of cocoanut shell which consistsin first producing a blank by removing the husk and soft tissue from theshell, then forming the article out of the blank, then subjecting theformed article to a temperature of about one hundred degrees Fahrenheit,then immersing the article in a liquid dye, then drying the article, andthen finishing by tumbling the article in a mixture of cocoanut shavingsand powdered stearin.

5. In the art of making articles out of vegetable shell, the process offinishing which consists in tumbling the article in a mixture of fibrousmaterial and a powdered stearic compound.

In the art of making articles out of cocoanut shell, the process offinishing which consists in tumbling the article in a mixture Copies ofthis patent may be'obtained for of cocoanut shavings and a powderedstearic compound.

7. In the art of making articles out of cocoanut shell, the process offinishing which consists in tumbling the article in a mixture ofcocoanut shavings and powdered stearin.

8. The process of making articles out-of cocoanut shell which consistsin first producing a blank by removing the husk and soft tissue from theshell, then forming the article out of the blank, then subjecting theformed article to a temperature of about one hundred degrees Fahrenheit,and then 1m mersing the article in a liquid dye.

fivecents each, by addressing, the Gommissionmt of Patents,

Washington, I). C.

